everyone is blaming smalling but!

You are very knowledgeable.

- and he's certainly no Peter Schmeicel -

by a million miles, too.

no sarcasim. You are correct of course, however its how they have set up in training, they will have their jobs down to the fine from set pieces.
Also I do think ferdinand for all is BIG BOY talk, took no responsibility here as captain, he should have been marking kompany, i think he bottled it.
Ferdinand is a very poor captain, I would not want to be next to him in the trenches, in fact i would 'nt be, he would be gone.

As for the keeper, i think he will improve year on year in the prem, eventually in 3 years he will know what to come for, keepers are like good wines, however HOWARD at everton, was at utd, and he still wont come for crosses, so maybe its the coaching.

The commentator said last night that De Gea needs laser eye surgery!

(he wasn't joking)

hes a lankey streak of....................

will never cut it at the top which is perfect as united wont be there any more.

Totally agree with you "eye" about Howard and Ferdinand. Good reaction keeper but total Dracula with crosses. AS for Ferdinand he talks the talk but it is easy to stroll about at the back when he should have been driving United on in the last 20 minutes.

Tevez blocked De Gea. Got himself in a right pickle.

Everyone blaming Smalling from Gary Neville to Niall Quinn , NO shots on target in 90 minutes and a goalkeeper 2 stone underweight and needing eye surgery might have something to do with it , leave Smalling alone FFS.

The utd keeper is a great shot stopper, but i dont think i have seen a weaker keeper in the air. He puts soo much pressure on the defence from crosses as a result.

Saying that Hart flapped at a couple of crosses in the 2nd half as well.

sadly smalling is considered one of englands best centre backs"this is hugely worrying for englands future".10- 15 years ago englands main problem was considered to be lack of flair players but never defensively frail, i think the coming euro champpionships may  prove this again. i just dont see any class centre halves coming thru, jones is a bitsn  bobs player a typical "utility"player.ferdinand deffo on the decline, terrys been too slow for years, cahil not remotely international class, hope im wrong but i can just see us letting in more goals than other top ten euro nations.lets hope smalling improves as i dont think theres anyone else on the  horizon.

his own players stopped him getting earlier crosses, ....


given stood on his line for 20 years, puts pressure on defenders, i'd rather a keeper came and flapped as stood on his line, at least the chance of being flattened by the keeper might distract, and the ref aint giving a pelanty, indeed he may well decide to give keeper a free kick.

Smalling should take part of the blame but a bigger problem could be De Gea - he is a great shot-stopper but he definitely has a problem with physical contact, you can see he is intimidated when any opposition player challenges him in the box.

chelsea defended better against barca without terry and cahill......

no real surprise to me, they are there for their strength

The problem is when he does try and flap at the ball he doesnt get there as he is not strong enough to push players out the way.

Even though Hart made a bit of a mess of 2 crosses in the 2nd half he is big and strong enough to get to the ball.

The boy needs to spend a lot of time in the gym this summer, he needs to get muscled up.

3 major erors with that goal. Firstly it was De Gea's cross to win; secondly Smalling jumping in front of, rather than with his man, thirdly Ferdinad standing and watching just in front of Smalling when he should have taken Kompany. Who was he worried about; the two Argie midgets! Atrocious defending and got what it deserved.

the delivery of corners by city from that side was good, and it was a good header


nice to see loads of highly paid skilful footballers sorting out the most important game of the season with a school yard goal